When asked if Tolley, Bennett, State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes and Prime Minister Bill English’s chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson, should all lose their jobs, Peters said “of course they should”.

“They’re all in breach of the privacy laws of this country and there has to be consequences – they have just been so badly caught out,” he said.

Peters has never resigned over breaches of privacy but he has different rules for himself.

NZ First candidate Shane Jones has launched a scathing attack on a senior civil servant, who he has accused of being at the centre of politically-motivated leaks in two separate elections.

Ministry of Social Development chief executive Brendan Boyle has confirmed he briefed his minister Anne Tolley that the department had settled a matter with NZ First leader Winston Peters’ on the overpayment of his pension.

“The man is no stranger to breaches of privacy. He was in charge of the internal affairs department when in the midst of the 2008 election there was a massive dump of documents.

“It was a file of a matter I dealt with, pertaining to Bill Liu – right in the middle of an election.

“Now the man is in the middle of a major privacy breach in this election,” Jones said.

Risky for Jones to bring up Bill Liu.

It emerged just before the 2008 election, then Labour Immigration Minister Jones granted the controversial Chinese businessman New Zealand citizenship despite an Interpol warning.

And it seems that after being distanced from National Cameron Slater has shifted his dirty politics to trying to help Peters and NZ First.

Like Peters his accusations have evolved, suggesting they are dirty speculations.

He originally thought the big revelation was something else.

Then when the Super story broke he accused Anne Tolley. He has since piled into Bill English and his staff, also Steven Joyce.

And apparently he has now blamed someone ‘very close to Paula Bennett’.

If the leaker is revealed both he and peters will probably claim to have been right – if they accuse enough people their odds must be good.

It has long been a tactic of both Peters and Slater of making public accusations without any evidence, it seems to be aimed at trying to flush out a culprit.

Dirty politics from both of them. It was dirty to leak the information but whoever leaked is just wrestling in mud with political pigs.

27 Comments

duperez

PDB

None of which have been proven. Winston himself put it about that National people were talking about it at their conference (no evidence) – the same guy that has so far accused a journalist for lying about his tax problem (a lie), blamed IRD (no evidence), blamed 2 National MPs (no evidence), said English & Joyce had discussed it (no evidence) and who had his attack dog Shane Jones blaming a senior public servant (no evidence).

PDB

Now you are being silly – the USA/USSR gained the most from WW2 (becoming super-powers in the process), not Japan.

When looking at something like this where no one knows who the leaker was the assumption has to always be who benefits the most? and who has the most to lose? I’d suggest National had the most to lose & benefited the least from the ‘hit’. Of course they could have been a bunch of reckless idiots that disregarded all consequences but I think this more far fetched than the simple proposition a left-wing leaning public servant leaked it.

Anonymous Coward

Well then swap USA/USSR for Japan then. ( though, yes they became superpowers but Japan was transformed into a thoroughly hyper-modern society from a feudalistic backwater).

You’re still looking at results over intention. National have gained nothing from this it’s true, but that doesn’t override what they could have hoped to have gained – and don’t forget that this is a party that a few weeks a go had an enormous lead in the polls.
If anyone could leak something for a negative gain at the moment it’s the National party.

PDB

At only 4% Pref PM and 8% Party in the polls, it looks like he’s being deserted for Jacinda Mania. He’d better not attack her personally or threaten an anti CGT bottom line, but he needs to come up with some direct dirt. He should have some, being their lap dog for so long.

PDB

Yep – It shows that a good chunk of Winston’s support base was old Labour supporters who are now deserting him in droves. For a guy the MSM paint as politically astute he has made a major error in mainly attacking National & largely ignoring Labour since Ardern became leader.

I’m afraid his explanations re the ignored letters from MSD and the original app/data entry/stupid MDS agent filling in error, his failure tp notice he was getting more over a seven year period simply don’t pass a normal person’s sniff test.

He has so much bullshit form for both milking the taxpayer and falsely filling out forms.

-D

Stephen Franks has an interesting position on the basic “privacy” aspect which he feels is an overblown sensitivity that has crept into the collective NZ psyche. His suggestion would be that any records connected to the receipt of public moneys, such as benefit or superannuation payments, should be available as a matter of public record.

If Winston has done nothing wrong what is the issue about our seeing the documentation? On the other hand, if he did diddle the application why should he be allowed to hide behind a shield of “privacy” ?

-D

I’m pretty sure he is serious Blazer. Though I doubt he envisions a public data base say the way the Companies Office data is available. Maybe there is some halfway arrangement that would be considerate of people’s routine personal sensibilities.

duperez

Franks considerate of people’s routine personal sensibilities? Pshaw!
However, I’m with him. Since our radio station, RNZ has him on regularly I guess they pay him so I want access to his records connected to the receipt of public moneys

Belledejour

How do we know it is not a criminal matter? If he made a false declaration on his original application he committed a crime. I wonder why the Minister of Police was briefed, and a legal opinion obtained from the Solicitor General, (caveat; as alleged by the whale) unless a crime was involved? Can someone form MSD please hurry up and leak the original form he filled and signed with the 2 relevant questions on it?
And if he committed a crime, then bigger questions will be asked about who in the Govt potentially covered his butt and shielded him from being taken to court.?
That actually would be a Mother…etc.
The leak could still have come from within the Nats, with a person being not happy if he was potentially shielded in this way, a break from ranks in other words.

Anonymous Coward

PDB

I suppose the key here is that it’s not a criminal matter, Winston paid what he owed and the penalties arising from that and the incident was considered closed by the authorities. In that respect there was no need for the general public to know.